Child Safe Standards: independent review and audit
An outside assessment of whether your organisation actually meets the Standards — not just whether you have written policies saying you do.
Organisations working with children in Victoria are required to comply with the Child Safe Standards. Most have a policy. Far fewer can evidence that the policy is being followed, and that is the gap that matters when something goes wrong or a regulator asks.
ACERTA conducts independent reviews and audits against the Standards for schools, early learning services, sporting clubs, religious and community organisations, care providers and any organisation that runs activities involving children.
Compliance is a legal obligation, not a certification scheme. There is no certificate that makes an organisation child safe and we will not pretend otherwise. What an independent audit gives you is an honest assessment of where you stand, written down, before someone else does that assessment for you under less comfortable circumstances.
What we assess
- Governance and leadership — who is accountable, and whether the board or committee actually receives and acts on child safety information
- Policies and codes of conduct — whether they exist, whether staff and volunteers have read them, and whether they are enforced
- Recruitment and screening — Working with Children Checks, reference checking, and what happens when a check lapses
- Training and supervision — what people are actually trained on, and how often
- Reporting and complaints — whether a child or parent could realistically raise a concern, and what happens when they do
- Record keeping — whether you could evidence any of the above to a regulator tomorrow
- Physical and online environments — including social media, messaging and photography practices
- Cultural safety and inclusion — for Aboriginal children, culturally diverse children and children with disability
How the review runs
- 1
Document review
We read what you have before we arrive — policies, codes, registers, training records, committee minutes.
- 2
On-site assessment
Interviews with leadership, staff and volunteers. We look at what happens in practice, not what the folder says.
- 3
Gap report
Written plainly. Every finding says what is missing, which Standard it relates to and what a reasonable fix looks like.
- 4
Prioritised actions
Ranked by risk to children first, and administrative tidiness last. So a small organisation knows where to start.
- 5
Follow-up review
Optional. We come back and confirm the actions were genuinely closed out.
Who this is for
- Schools, kindergartens and early learning services
- Sporting clubs and associations
- Religious organisations and places of worship
- Community groups, youth programmes and holiday programmes
- Out-of-home care, disability and family services
- Tutoring, music, dance and coaching businesses
- Any organisation whose insurer, funder or governing body has asked for evidence of compliance
Why bring in someone external
An internal self-assessment is completed by people who wrote the policies, work with the staff being assessed and already believe the organisation is doing the right thing. That is not a criticism — it is simply why self-assessment misses things.
An external auditor has no history with your organisation, no relationships to protect, and asks the questions an inspector would ask. The findings are more uncomfortable and considerably more useful.
Book an independent review
Tell us what your organisation does, roughly how many staff and volunteers you have, and whether anyone has already asked you for evidence of compliance.
